LastPass 3.0 Premium takes the flexible and comprehensive password management found in the free edition and kicks it up a notch. Premium features include unusually broad mobile device support, high-tech multifactor authentication, and more.

How could a company that gives away one of the best and most comprehensive password managers for free entice people to pay for a premium version? Well, one way might be to keep the price low, say, a dollar a month. Another would be to add an absolute boatload of premium-only features. LastPass 3.0 Premium does both; it's inexpensive and loaded with features.

The underlying technology is exactly the same as what you get in LastPass 3.0. I won't rehash that review; do please read it first, if you haven't already. Yes, it won't be long before LastPass 4.0 shows up. We expect it sometime this summer. But version 3.0 has learned a few new tricks since my original review.

Briefly, LastPass does a great job handling all expected password management and Web form filling tasks, and adds a number of unusual bonus features. With version 3.0 it got a facelift and a new user interface that emphasizes keeping all program interactions close to whatever you were already doing.

As with any password manager, you need to create a strong master password. Commit it to memory; don't rely on a password reminder that someone else might be able to decipher. The only real exposure in the recent LastPass data breach (which happened as this article was being published) involved password reminders. Note, too, that if you enable two-factor authentication, as described below, merely knowing your master password won't permit anyone else to access your account.

The Security Challenge report rates your passwords and helps you fix any that aren't secure. New since my original review, the Security Challenge offers to check all the email addresses it found among your logins to make sure they weren't exposed in any security breaches. Like Dashlane 3, LastPass now automates password changing for specific secure sites. The report lists all compromised, weak, duplicate, and old passwords in your collection and lets you automatically update those it can handle. For the rest, it offers quick links to manually change the password, and of course it updates its database with the new password.

Thoroughly Mobile These days you're just as likely to log on for shopping or banking from a smartphone or tablet as from a PC, Mac, or Linux box. Many password managers extend their service to Android and iOS devices, among them Dashlane, Norton Identity Safe (2014), and Sticky Password Premium.

With LastPass Premium you can use all of your saved login passwords and Web form personal profiles on your Android, BlackBerry, or iOS devices, but it doesn't stop there. There's also support for Windows Phone, and a Surface RT edition. You can download LastPass for Dolphin Browser and Firefox OS, as well as special editions aimed at Chrome Portable and Firefox Portable. And since my original review the mobile editions have improved as well. They've got a fresh design, the iOS edition supports Touch ID, and you can use LastPass in Chrome on mobile devices.

LastPass for Applications In addition to visiting secure websites, you probably run quite a few secure applications that require a password to log in. Yes, you've probably set your email client and instant messaging client to remember the password, because logging in each time is tedious. LastPass for Applications, a separate utility available to Premium users, attempts to bring simple, automated password management to applications as well.

Once you install this tool, it appears as an icon in the system tray. Its menu includes all the same functions as that of the regular LastPass tray icon, but it adds a new Applications submenu. Initially you'll just find one item in this menu: Add Application.

Capturing application passwords isn't nearly as easy as capturing website logins. In order to add an application, you first point it out to LastPass by clicking it with a special mouse cursor. Then you fill in your username and password in LastPass. If you're lucky, LastPass now has enough information to automatically log in next time around. Sticky Password also uses a special cursor; in testing it worked even with a brand-new password-protected program that I coded myself.

Your saved applications appear under the Applications menu; click one to launch it and log in. You can also copy the password to the clipboard, for those cases when LastPass can't manage to shoehorn it into the password dialog automatically.

In testing I found that LastPass for Applications handled most programs decently, including my home-made test program. It slipped up with a few; for example, it managed to autofill the username for my VPN client, but not the password. Even so, you'll improve your security by using this tool to log into those applications where it does work, rather than letting them log in automatically with a stored password.

Enhanced Multifactor Authentication LastPass's free edition has a wider assortment of choices for multifactor authentication than any other password manager I've seen. When you enable multifactor authentication, a hacker who guesses or steals your master password won't be able to log in. Among the free edition's options are Google Authenticator, including Twilio Authy and other workalikes. The free edition also supports authentication via Duo Mobile, Transakt, and Toopher.

The YubiKey is a tough, tiny USB device that supplies a one time password on demand. I've been carrying one on my keychain for five years or more now, rattling around with my other keys. Yes, it's tough! When I'm traveling, I enable LastPass's YubiKey authentication. To log into LastPass on my laptop, I first enter my master password and then, when prompted, insert the YubiKey. Once it lights up, I put a finger on its touch button briefly, and it sends the necessary one time password. Simple! LastPass also supports the FIDO Alliance's Universal Two Factor authentication via Security Key, which looks very similar to the YubiKey.

A YubiKey costs $25, which isn't a lot. However, you can get almost the same functionality from any USB drive, simply by installing LastPass's Sesame utility. After entering your master password, you insert the thumb drive, launch Sesame, and click the button to generate a one time password. Not quite as simple as touching the YubiKey, but everybody has a spare thumb drive or two kicking around.

Authentication via fingerprint or smart card is also a Premium-only feature. For those whose laptops have a finger-swipe detector built in, it's a fast and convenient way to double-lock LastPass's data.

IE Anywhere You can log into your LastPass Vault from any computer. That lets you view and manipulate your logins and stored personal data, but if you want automated password management you need to install the browser plugin. Or do you?

If you're a premium subscriber, you can download LastPass's IE Anywhere to a thumb drive or CD and use it on any computer, even a computer where you don't have permission to install plugins. It adds a tiny floating LastPass button in the corner of Internet Explorer's current page,notin the browser's toolbar area. By clicking the button you can autofill credentials for the current site, or fill a Web form. You can also click the tray icon for a menu of all your saved logins. And when you quit the program, it leaves nothing behind.

I had quite a bit of trouble with IE Anywhere in testing the first time around. When I tested again, some issues still weren't resolved. On one Windows 7 system the floating LastPass button never appeared. On a Windows 8.1 virtual machine, the button appeared but the menu always showed "No matching sites." A 64-bit edition running on a 64-bit Windows 8.1 machine did work fine, both filling passwords and Web form fields.

I'm not all that worried, myself. I'd rather wait to use my own fully secure computer with the LastPass plugin than attempt an IE Anywhere session on a computer of questionable security.

Premium Sharing Features LastPass free edition lets you share any of your saved login items with friends who are also LastPass users and choose whether or not to let them view the password. With LastPass Premium you can keep your shared items in sync, automatically pushing any changes to those who share the login, updating based on their changes, or both.

That's useful, but the Shared Family Folder is even better. Premium users can create a special folder that's shared with up to five other LastPass users. Only the creator needs a premium subscription; the others can be free users. Now every login that you drag into the shared folder is automatically shared with the group. This handy feature cuts out the whole process of sending an email and having the recipient accept the share.

One major feature of LastPass's Enterprise edition is the ability to create multiple shared folders for different groups. Premium just gives you one shared folder, but some fine tuning is possible. For each of the recipients you can go through the list of shared items and mark some as hidden. You can also set it so that new items are initially hidden, until you choose to remove that restriction. I like it!

Premium Credit Monitoring When you create a personal profile for filling Web forms, you can check a box to have LastPass watch for anomalies in that profile's credit or identity. The free edition will tell you thatsomethinghappened related to your credit, but you have to do your own research to find out just what happened. Premium users get full details, and an offer of help.

The premium credit monitoring page lists all recent events that might affect your credit. For example, when I bought a new car I got a number of alerts from LastPass due to the credit check. You can log into the Credit Monitoring Dashboard for more details, and even drill down to see such things as all the addresses found for you in the National Change of Address registry. The dashboard also reports your credit scores from the big three monitoring agencies.

Granted, this feature isn't directly related to password management, but it's certainly useful. If it alerts you to a potential problem, it'll present a toll-free number to get help.

Another Winner The basic free LastPass offers a more flexible and comprehensive system of password management than almost any of the competition, free or paid. LastPass 3.0 Premium enhances your ability to share credentials and adds some significant options for multifactor authentication.

Not all of the premium-level bonus features are as polished as the basic password manager. LastPass for Applications can't handle every oddball password-protected app, for example, and IE Anywhere didn't work right on some test systems. But just the ability to sync your passwords and form-fill data with your mobile devices would be worth the dollar-a-month premium fee.

Dashlane 3 costs more than LastPass Premium, but even after LastPass's makeover, Dashlane is still better-looking and easier to use, so some will prefer it. Along with Dashlane 3 and Sticky Password Premium, LastPass Premium is our Editors' Choice for premium password management.

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